Built to Last
by Lady Gwenevere Smith
Summary: This is real, and this is good, and it warms the inside just like it should. But most of all, most of all, PB and J is built to last.


**Built to Last**

_**I've looked for love in stranger places,  
But never found someone like you.  
Someone whose smile makes me feel I've been holding back,  
And now there's nothing I can't do.**_

_**'Cause this is real, and this is good.  
It warms the inside just like it should,  
But most of all it's built to last.**_

**_All of our friends saw from the start.  
So why didn't we believe it too?  
Whoa yeah, now look where you are.  
You're in my heart now.  
And there's no escaping it for you._**

**_'Cause this is real, and this is good.  
It warms the inside just like it should,  
But most of all it's built to last._**

**_Walking on the hills that night with those fireworks and candlelight,  
You and I were made to get love right_**

**_'Cause this is real, and this is good.  
It warms the inside just like it should,  
But most of all it's built to last._**

**_'Cause you are the sun in my universe,  
Considered the best when we've felt the worst  
And most of all it's built to last._**

—"**Built to Last" © Melee **

"I bought it the first week we started dating," he said proudly as he held up the small, dainty diamond engagement ring.

It was perfect for Pam, he thought. There wasn't a whole lot of detail or superfluous additions to it, but it was still very beautiful in its simplicity. She wasn't the type of person who gravitated to lavishness or pretentiousness, and that was one of the many reasons he loved her. Her sense of humor was probably the chief thing that attracted him to her, and the way she could seem so passively calm and sweet, but he knew better. Beneath that benign façade lay a quick witted and clever mind that could easily keep up with his prankster, sly, cool attitude.

"So, Beesly, what are we doing for dinner tonight?" Jim asked genially as he put on his coat and blue striped scarf.

"I was kinda hoping to try out this new place my friend told me about."

"What's this, Beesly? You have friends? When did this happen?"

He grinned mischievously, raising his eyebrows in a sort of challenge to see what she would do in response.

"Jim!" she cried incredulously, swatting him on the arm playfully.

"What?" he laughed.

"I do have friends, thank you very much," she harrumphed.

"Right, of course, I knew that. Now, who is this friend? And where did they recommend we go?"

"She's in my digital graphics class—"

"Oh, good, it's a she. Because if it wasn't a girl—"

"I think she'd prefer to be called a woman, since she's long past puberty by now," Pam corrected.

"Oh, excuse me, Susan B. Anthony, for not using the politically correct term!"

"Susan B. Anthony? Wow, you remember fifth grade history, Jim. I'm impressed!" she giggled.

He laughed too, but then put on a very somber face.

"So, can we get back on topic? Because I'm starving, and I really want to get something to eat and if you don't tell me where we're going, I might be forced to take drastic measures and go to McDonalds and I know how much you love to go to the golden arches."

"Blech."

"Or maybe you'd prefer a bologna, ketchup, and tomato sub from that Subway knock-off place?"

Pam rolled her eyes in disgust.

"Must you remind me of Michael? I'd like to keep him out of my life while I'm not in the office, thanks."

"Oh, well, Jan would be glad to hear that, since she thinks you're competition and all…"

The death glare Jim received would have made Angela look like an amature.

"You are evil, Jim Halpert," Pam said in a mockingly menacing tone.

He shrugged, grinning.

"Whatever you say, Dwight."

"Hey!"

She swatted him again, and was just about to make another comment regarding the awful comparison he'd just made between herself and their obnoxious co-worker, when the doors to the elevator opened, so the pair stepped outside and into the lobby.

"So, where are we going?" Jim prodded as he opened the glass door leading out to the parking lot.

"It's called Tuscadero and Madeline says it's really good and cheap, so that's good."

"Cheap? What, you think I don't want to spend money on you?" he said quietly. "I'm not Roy."

As soon as he said it, he knew he'd made a mistake. Pam froze in her tracks, and turned around slowly.

"What did you say?" she asked, though she had heard quite plainly what he said.

"I um, it's nothing. So where is this Tuscadero place located?"

"Fifth and New Road," she answered tersely.

He nodded and reached out to open the passenger door for her, but she opened it first, and slammed it, hard. They drove in silence, until they reached the quaint little Italian restaurant.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that," Jim muttered quietly as she took off her seatbelt and prepared to exit the vehicle.

"No you shouldn't have…even if it was true," she agreed.

They walked in together, with Jim holding open the door for her. As they waited for their table, Pam finally reached over and hooked her arm in his, and smiling up at him. It's not like he was wrong in what he said, and she knew it. But that didn't mean that she wanted to be reminded of that God-awful decision she had made to stay with Roy even after Jim declared his love for her. To think that she might have lost her best friend and love of her life forever was almost too much of a burden to bear. Thankfully, through a series of fateful circumstances, she and Jim had found their way back to each other, and this time they were rightfully together, instead of star-crossed almost-lovers.

"PB and J, your table is ready," the young hostess called.

Pam gave Jim a confused look.

"I'll tell you later," he whispered into her ear as they wound their way through the crowded restaurant to their table in the back corner, by the kitchen.

Once they were seated and had ordered their drinks (a beer for him, and peach iced tea for her), he explained that Kevin had once said that they belonged together like peanut butter and jelly, and that their initials, Pam Beesly and Jim formed the acronym PB and J.

"Wow, that's pretty clever for Kevin. I wouldn't have expected him to come up with something like that," Pam said, impressed. "Well, it seems that Kev has his moments of brilliance every-so-often. Sometimes I think he pays more attention than he lets on."

"Either that or he was tired of watching _American Pie 2_ clips on youtube," Jim quipped.

The waitress brought out their drinks, and some bread and olive oil dipping sauce, and then returned to the kitchen with their orders. The two Dunder Mifflin employees continued on in genial conversation, talking about everything from Dwight's latest attempt to woo Angela back from Andy, which included a hewn wooden figurine of an Egyptian cat god that apparently Dwight's cousin Mose had made. This, of course, had highly offended Angela's very strict Christian beliefs, and once again she quashed any hope Dwight had that she'd return to him. Then the conversation turned to Ryan's recent firing for testing positive for cocaine in a random drug test.

"What is it about that job that causes everybody to self destruct?" Pam wondered aloud.

"Oh, you know, the pressures of running a dilapidated paper firm would drive anyone to do drugs, or to date Michael Scott. Which of those options is the more desperate choice, I'll leave to you to decide."

Their food arrived, so PB and J were quiet for a few moments as they wolfed down the large bowl of spaghetti and meatballs they were sharing. Once they were both quite full, Jim asked for the check.

"I wanted desert," Pam said disappointedly.

"Don't worry, I've got something at home that I made," Jim replied cryptically.

"It's not Oreos and pudding with gummy worms again, is it?"

"But you love that stuff!"

"No, Jim, _you_ love that stuff. I'm a grown up. I like my Oreos with a glass of milk, after I've licked off all the icing."

He scoffed loudly, but the twinkle in his green eyes clearly indicated that he was once again joking.

"Would those be regular, or double stuffed Oreos?" he inquired bemusedly.

"Double stuffed of course!"

As they drove back to his apartment, he reached over and intertwined his fingers with hers. She smiled over at him, and then went back to staring out the passenger window. She always liked driving with him; it was a very simple, but intimately comforting experience. The safety of his car was one of the few places they could display affection without the fear of a camera documenting their every move.

"So, what kind of desert have you made me?" Pam asked excitedly as she and Jim walked up the stairs to his apartment on the second floor.

"You'll see."

"Ooh, being secretive, are we now? Should I call agent Michael Scarn to investigate?"

They both laughed heartily at the memory of Michael's atrocious movie script, starring himself, of course, as the suave and cool FBI agent. The best part had been when Dwight figured out that Agent Scarn's totally idiotic and incompetent sidekick, Samuel L. Chang was in actuality, based on him, the Assistant to the Regional Manager (ARM for short).

Pam took off her coat and her kitten heeled shoes, and plopped down on the couch, while Jim trotted off to the kitchen to fetch his mystery desert. He returned later, balancing a silver tray in one hand, and a white cloth napkin draped across his other arm.

"Madam, may I present the house specialty tonight, Cream de la Jell-O, by our top chef, Jim Halpert."

He set the tray in front of her, and on it was a single pale pink tea rose, Pam's favorite flower, along with a cup of cherry Jell-O with the foil lid peeled back. She gave him a withering look, but picked up the Jell-O, and the spoon next to it, and just as she was about to take her first bite, she gasped, and dropped the spoon onto her lap. Molded inside the Jell-O was a ring. Her eyes darted quickly to Jim, who was on one knee by now, and the jiggling confection, and back again.

"Jim? Is…is this…"

"Shh. Let me talk," he instructed quietly.

Pam nodded obediently, her pale green eyes wide with shock.

"Pam, I…I'm not very good at this…but I wanted you to know that I have always, from the very moment I met you, loved you. And no matter how much I denied it, no matter who else I dated, I could never escape the fact that I knew deep in my heart that you were the one for me. I'm just sorry that I never had the courage to tell you sooner. You have no idea how much I wanted to tell you before I did, and how much I regret forcing you into that awkward situation. I know you called off your wedding for me, and I should have proposed to you the moment I found out. But I was scared Pam, scared that you'd reject me again. And I just couldn't take that. But now, now that we're together, well, I think it's time to do what I've always wanted to do. Will you, Pam Beesly, be my wife?"

His eyes were brimming with tears, just like they had on Casino Night, but these were different tears. Instead of being tears of desperation and sadness, these were tears of hope, and love, the kind you produce when you're being completely open with the person you care about most in the world.

"Jim…I…yes. Yes! Of course!" she exclaimed in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

He smiled the biggest smile he'd ever smiled in his life, and immediately swooped up to give her a passionate kiss unlike any he'd ever given her before. She was so taken aback that Pam was quite sure her heart had stopped for a moment. When he finally pulled away, leaving her gasping for breath, he was grinning again. But this time, it was his customary impish smirk that meant he was up to something.

"You do know that you'll have to eat the ring out of there, before I'll put it on your finger, right?"


End file.
